What is a reasonable cost for A-Level tutors?

[PoloMum]

I have just been quoted £160/hour for an online tutor for A Level Economics. That seems horrendously high to me. I was expecting something in the region of £60-80 per hour.

What is a reasonable hourly rate for a qualified (ex-teacher) tutor in other MNers experience?

Teachers already have A levels. Then they do a degree in their subject areas. Often they have a masters degree in their subject area, some have a masters degree in education, these people have a distinct interest in pedagogy - the science and theory of teaching. Pedagogy is forever changing and things go in and out of fashion.

For example, I have O level English, A level English, a degree in English literature- which also covers some other humanity subjects. I also have a masters degree in English. I have a pgce. Therefore, I am well qualified to teach English at GCSE and A level. I was also a GCSE examiner and had to pass the exam board training and monitoring. This gave me an insight into the examination process and what the exam board was looking for.

With regards to subject knowledge, the exam boards do regular training sessions and provide some teaching materials. I always did a lot of extra lesson preparation and research. For example, I can quote macbeth, I have seen the play several times in the theatre and sit and quote along with the actors. Lost count of how many times I've watched it. I always played excerpts of the play in my lessons in order to consolidate learning. Ditto for just about every text that I've ever taught. All lessons have to have a plenary.

I did know a languages teacher who was teaching Chinese to the lower school. He taught himself GCSE Chinese and passed the exam with a grade 9. It would be pointless for me to take an A level English exam. I did however, write model answers and share them with students to show what was expected of them.

As regards results, I taught in college, students had target grades and I was expected to get them there. We had multi coloured spreadsheets tracking progress. All attendance, coursework assessments were on the spreadsheet. Around about February, we had to submit predicted grades to the exam boards. I was expected to know how each student would perform in the exam. At the end of August, we had a staff meeting and everyone's results were shared with the department. The results were analysed together with the examiners report. We were given targets for improvement for the upcoming academic year. Each question was analysed, together with students performance on that question.

Lesson observations covered subject knowledge and delivery of teaching. Plus, things like how engaged the students were.

CPD covered things such as subject content from the exam board. Safeguarding had to be completed on an annual basis. We also had drugs awareness, dyslexia training, autism training, lots of equality and diversity training, prevent, Google classroom training. We also had department training about the delivery of the course.

We also had to do Safeguarding training with the exam board, and, in fact, I did have to refer some Safeguarding concerns with reference to some exam answers.

I think some issues arise when a teacher is teaching outside of their subject area.

We also had a teacher who lacked the whatever to get the kids through exams. He lost coursework. He allowed kids to skip lessons. Somehow he didn't prepare them for the exam. They all failed. He was sacked.

It takes me an hour to plan/mark each bespoke lesson when I tutor. So really you are paying for 2 hours work.

like any skilled profession there are different levels, like hairdressers, personal trainers etc. you pay what you can afford and what you think it worth it. But my child’s education is something I will pay more for. And I didn’t try a couple of cheaper students first, they just don’t have the skills to explain things in different ways and understand learning theories of how to build and progress learning

Great if you can afford to teach for that price. For some tutors it’s their living, their whole income. As another poster said upthread, there’s often an hour’s worth of prep and marking alongside the actual lesson so in effect, parents are paying for two hours work.
I charge £50 ph for 11+ and plan to increase my rates in April. I’m not a charity. This is my business and I have bills to pay.

Inflation is real so i get it, when i was tutored for 11+ (this is the only time I ever was tutored) it was still about 20 quid an hr and that was years back.

You charge what you feel is fair or what you can get, nothing wrong with that

I don't run as a charity either, business is business

Tuition is a great option to make a living though because the hourly rate is very good

Thanks for the detailled answer, super insightful

I think english is actually quite different to the subjects I had in mind where the content sticks with you more than some subjects

Of course there is continuous learning needed as exam board expectations change

I did macbeth at GCSE lol but i don't remember it now - bad memory

I think whether you have done GCSE, A level or got a degree continous learning and recap is still crucial. I forget everything post exams but teachers are supposed to teach the same things each yr so inevitably it should stick

I'd like you for my kids' tutor! You're well worth £65 and £75 if your lessons are individually planned from scratch for each individual student.
Our kids haven't reach that age yet but I'd expect to pay around £50 mark.

I assume from your username that you are a science or maths person. English teachers remember English stuff in the way that you would remember science stuff.

I did very well in O level maths. It hasn't stuck. My Biology learning has stuck, Physics didn't stick.

This is where the issue arises in schools. If a teacher has an A level in say French, they are expected to be able to teach French. They may have no affinity at all with French. They may hate French but they still have to teach it.

A lot of people walk away from a subject after A levels. Some teachers are only teaching for something to do. Luckily, I loved my subject and enjoyed teaching it.

I could also teach History if the occasion arose. I would enjoy the challenge.

Its person dependent tbh.

I remembered english stuff differently to science.

Its nice you would enjoy the challenge, keeps it fresh :)

As long as a teacher is learning the content well before the lesson they can teach most things to be honest, espescially something like history where skills translate well from english

We are paying £85 for GCSE maths - really good after cheaper not so good options

And £65 for A Level Further Maths

i saw some people asking for £160/h or so when looking for the A level. They made big claims on slick websites but they just looked like chancers when they weren’t able to cover the unusual Further Maths modules that our school chose. They might be fab but equally “reassuringly expensive” isnt always “best”

There’s a middle ground though! 160 is a lot but I would rather pay more for quality

60 - 80

are you sure that's not a block of lesson's ??

I used to charge £70 per hour for English.

I taught A level.biology for 18 years, taught A level chemistry for 6 years..I examined A level biology for 10 years. Retired from the classroom a few years ago but went on tutoring for a couple of years. Last time I tutored 3 years ago I charged 75 pounds an hour.